July 28, 2011

British Police Arrest Suspected Hacktivist Spokesman

A 19-year-old British man was arrested on Wednesday in Scotland as part of an investigation into the hacking groups Anonymous and LulzSec.

The man, who authorities believe used the online nickname "ËTopiary', is suspected of being a prominent player in a number of cyber attacks by the two hacking collectives.

The groups have claimed responsibility for breaking into the networks of the CIA, Sony and many other private and public websites.

Scotland Yard's cybercrime unit made the arrest, and suspect the man may have been a spokesman for both groups, officials said Wednesday.

British police said the 19-year-old was held up at a house in the Shetland Islands off Scotland's northeast coast, and was being taken to a police station in central London, Reuters reported.

LulzSec has attracted widespread global media coverage for its cyber-attacks, and has attracted nearly 350,000 followers on Twitter.

Last month, British police charged Ryan Cleary, 19, with attacking the website of Britain's Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) and sites owned by the British Phonographic Industry and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

In the United States, the FBI raided six locations in New York earlier this month and conducted searches in California as part of a probe into the Anonymous hacking collective.